Understanding the EFCA

I haven’t really been following the development of the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill, which would change the rules how unions are formed, has reached the House and Senate today. I do know that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce strenuously opposes the act, since it would likely make unionization easier.

Slate’s Christopher Beam puts together a brilliant piece of explanatory journalism on the EFCA and what exactly is at stake. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about this process, and especially important for anyone who watched the tedious and tenuous UAW-Foxwoods fight here in Souteastern Connecticut.

One response to “Understanding the EFCA”

I wrote an obit for a guy yesterday who was a member of the IBEW. He learned to be an electronics technician in the Korean War, and joined the IBEW when he returned to the states. I pretty much knew nothing about it, and the son chuckled at me while going through specifics and said “well, you’re a writer, so you wouldn’t know the difference between a certified electrician and a member of the IBEW,” which was true. Apparently there’s a whole other level of knowledge and skill that comes with the brotherhood.

I was raised in a Howard Zinn household, so I respect the idea and support the existence of unions in capitalist society, but I also recognize these organizations can themselves become power-hungry members of the establishment, enemies of free commerce and business evolution, etc. It’s a tricky line to walk, and I feel at times an increasing amount of ambivalence.